Work to refurbish traffic signals at Claypotts Road and Arbroath Road will take place from Monday January 12 2015.
Starting today, this will lead to several road closures over the next four weeks.
Traffic will not be able to travel from Claypotts Road onto Arbroath Road and vice versa.
An alternative route will be available for eastbound traffic approaching Scott Fyffe Roundabout via Strips of Craigie Road, A930 Dundee Road and Claypotts Road. Westbound traffic on Arbroath Road will be diverted via East Balgillo Road, Balgillo Road and Claypotts Road.
This is the second of a two phase programme in renewing the traffic signals at the linked Claypotts junctions, the first took place in October 2014.
The Council's traffic engineers reassure us that inconvenience to road users now will be worthwhile in the long run. The current traffic controls are at the end of their useful life and prone to breakdowns. The new control systems at these linked set of traffic signals will be easier to maintain and will be 'adaptive', allowing the lights to change more quickly when traffic flows are low.
Drivers heading from The Ferry to the Dundee City centre must wonder for whom the new right turn on Broughty Ferry Road was introduced?
This new turn with filter traffic lights leads onto Greendykes Road leading up to the Kingsway at the 'Scott-Fyffe' roundabout. It seems it's a junction where few drivers travelling west choose to use the new opportunity to turn right at the lights.
It wouldn't be such an issue if the bill for the junction 'upgrading' had not been so substantial. The upgrading of the road and junction was part of a £2+ million contract to upgrade the bridge into the docks at the Stannergate and improve links to the Kingsway for new green energy manufacturing. This was approved, with rather scant detail, at the City Development Committtee on 27 June 2011.
Significantly, when wind turbines were recently landed at Dundee Port and transportation arranged to Aberdeenshire, new direct lanes were engineered straight through the middle of the Stannergate roundabout for the articulated trucks to go directly up Strips of Craigie Drive. So much for the new enhanced junction on Broughty Ferry Road; it's dog leg corner which would clearly defeat lesser loads negotiating the corner.
I now have doubts about whether this part of the contract was a wise investment of public funds.
